About Me

Altering books can be a great adventure. There are no rules, no rights and wrongs. There are infinite ways to use all your favorite art supplies and skills to alter an old book. I hope you visit often. Please feel free to use any ideas and tricks you pick up here. I do this for fun, not for profit!One of my best tricks is - if you mess up a page, tear it out! Start a new page. That's "my way".

I recently added the mail art component here. What could be easier or more fun than making a post card and sending it off to a friend? Or to a stranger?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A shadow's bliss

"Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow's bliss." That's a little Shakespeare quote I found on a scrap of paper when I was tearing up the background texts for this collage/painting. This winter has been very grey and gloomy, if it isn't foggy, it's raining. I was thinking of sunshine on my shoulders and how I'm longing for the feel of it - so thought I'd paint a picture of sunshine. I used the main image from a photo I had taken last year of my dogs and I walking on the crest of a hill, just where the sun caught us and extended our shadows down the road. Luckily I had my camera in my pocket, so I could get a quick pic. I saw Roberta had done a really nice painting of herself and her husband with a photo she had taken of their shadows. So, the idea came from her January 7th blog. She said she didn't mind my using her idea. You should go there and see her painting too. I thought I was all done with this and set it up to dry, when the figure in the background seemed to emerge from the random colors I had applied there. When I saw it, I grabbed a pencil to capture it, and then went back with more paints to define it - without letting it take over the piece. What a lucky fluke that was. My friend Jean has those moments all the time with watercolors. She walks away and comes back to see what developed since she left it. Makes it very interesting, as things just seem to happen. This is done with fluid acrylics and gesso over torn papers glued to watercolor paper.